Wireless networks and wireless devices continue to evolve as new communication technologies are developed. As is commonly understood, current wireless devices are configured to interface with a smart card that is either a removable smart card or an embedded smart card. In most cases, a non-volatile memory is included in the smart card and stores software applications for accessing the wireless networks. A processor included in the wireless device is configured to read the software applications out of the non-volatile memory of the smart card and load the software applications into a random access memory (RAM) included in the wireless device. The processor then executes the software applications via the RAM, which enables the wireless device to access the wireless networks.
As is well-known, high-quality non-volatile memories—such as flash memory storage cards for consumer devices (e.g., digital cameras)—are capable of undergoing a large number write operations before they are worn out, which is usually on the order of a few hundred thousand writes. However, the non-volatile memories included in smart cards typically are low-quality and have a much shorter lifespan, which can be as low as a few thousand writes. Consequently, care and attention should be paid when developing the software applications that are resident on the non-volatile memory of the smart card to ensure that they do not issue frequent write operations to the non-volatile memory when executing on the processor of the wireless device. Instead, the software applications should be configured such that any frequent write operations are issued to the RAM of the wireless device that temporarily stores the software applications during the execution thereof.
Unfortunately, however, software development is a complex process and mistakes can easily be made. For example, a software engineer may write a loop that continuously references and updates a global variable instead of a local variable. This can cause the processor to issue continuous write operations to the non-volatile memory of the smart card instead the RAM of the wireless device, and can quickly lead to corrupting or rendering inoperable the non-volatile memory of the smart card. Consequently, the wireless device is unable to access the software applications, and, in turn, is unable to access the wireless networks. The owner of the wireless device is then faced with having to either replace the smart card when the smart card is removable or dismember the wireless device when the smart card is embedded, each of which is costly and incurs significant connectivity downtime to the owner.